“How did you like it?” my colleague asked as I handed him the novel I had borrowed from him a couple of weeks earlier.
“Pretty good”, I replied and wasn’t exaggerating. I had enjoyed the book very much.
“Wasn’t it!”
“Indeed. In particular I found the character development to be good. They were so alive somehow—the characters. So believable. As if one knew them in real life.”
“Yeah, exactly,“ my colleague agreed. ”I experienced that too. I was able to immerse myself in the scene. I felt somehow as if I was a part of that group of friends in the story.”
“I found the Matt Berg character especially realistic and convincing—somehow.” I added. “I could visualize him so clearly in min mind.”
“Matt Berg?” my colleague asked and we were clearly not on the same page.
“Yeah, the social scientist,” I said to help him refresh his memory.
My colleague lifted his eyebrows. He then narrowed his eyes as if he wanted to dig into my mind to understand better what I was talking about.
“The ambitious one,” I continued. “The dude who was thought to be so promising and clever but turned out to be an arrogant, hollow and narcissistic idiot.”
“Oh, that guy,“ said the colleague and was visibly relieved. ”You mean Ollie Smith?”
“Ollie Smith?” I asked surprised. Now it was I who was not on the right page. “Was that his name?”
“Yes, most definitely,” answered my colleague, with total conviction. “How could you misread the name in such a way? It’s not as if the names rhyme or have any resemblance whatsoever.”
“No clue,” I answered, shrugged my shoulders and looked out of the window. I visualized the face of the character who had been so particularly realistic when I read the book. I saw the grinning image of Matthew Steinberger. Matt Berg. My ex-classmate who had so often made attempts to humiliate me in high-school all those years ago. Had tried to cast doubt upon my abilities. Had tried to promote his own work by attempting to make mine look dodgy.
There at that moment I saw his image clearly in my mind. I who had all but forgotten his existence.
